Voice over IP method for developing interactive voice response system

ABSTRACT

A personal Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system includes a plurality of IVR servers communicating personal IVR service node information in a network and a plurality of personal IVR service node clients coupled to the plurality of IVR servers communicating the personal IVR service node information. The plurality of personal IVR service node clients have a client-server relationship with the plurality of IVR servers. The personal IVR system further includes facilities for managing transmission of the personal IVR service node information using a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 10/697,794, filedOct. 29, 2003, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,834,100, which is a divisionalapplication claiming priority of U.S. application Ser. No. 10/202,495,filed Jul. 24, 2002, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,876,727, which applications areincorporated herein in their entirety.

BACKGROUND

The present invention relates generally to computer telephony, and moreparticularly to an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system using Voiceover Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology in a telecommunicationsnetwork.

An Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system is a software applicationthat accepts a combination of voice telephone input and touchtone keypadselection and provides appropriate responses. An IVR system is usually apart of a larger application that includes database access.

Conventional IVR systems use an embedded software application and havebeen in commercial use for several years. For example, banks often usean IVR system to allow customers to perform fiscal transactions such asupdating the bank account using a telephone or Internet connection.Large businesses routinely use IVR systems in call centers to routeincoming calls. Typically in a call center IVR system, to resolve aproduct issue, a customer dials a customer care telephone number andenters a sequence of touch-tone keypad inputs. After obtaining relevantinformation regarding the issue, the call center IVR system eitherpresents an issue resolution, or simply logs the issue for furtherinvestigation. Additionally, movie theaters use IVR systems forselective information lookup such as finding movie schedules, theaterlocations etc.

Conventional IVR systems require specialized architectures to supportlarge applications, and databases containing records for thousands ofapplication users. Consequently IVR systems have been implemented in theexisting telecommunications network to handle only large applications.Hence, domestic users and small businesses have been unable to enjoy thebenefits of an IVR system due to unavailability of a small scale and lowcost IVR system.

The small scale IVR system service node was unavailable because theconventional IVRs employed the long-established Public SwitchedTelephone Network (PSTN) for information transmission. Under the PSTNcircuit-switched calls, a communication channel was exclusivelydedicated to a conversation for its duration, hence the 64 kbpsconnection could not be used for any other conversation regardless ofwhether the caller or the called party talked or remained silent.

As a result, the telephone service provider had to bill the callingparty for the use of the line for the entire duration of the call.Hence, the IVR systems were too costly for domestic users or smallbusiness. Realistically, if a small scale IVR system was introducedunder the conventional PSTN system, each domestic user would haveblocked a channel of communication for the duration of a call, which wasnot feasible since the number of potential domestic users far exceededthe number of available communication channels.

Therefore, a problem is presented in that a personal IVR system must beprovided for the benefit of small businesses and domestic users. It isalso required that the personal IVR system avoid using the PSTN forsignal transmission, since using the PSTN for signal transmission islikely to result in bottlenecking the existing communication channels.What is needed is a node provisioning system capable of offering thebenefits of conventional IVR systems to domestic users and smallbusinesses that will use the network resources only when needed. What isneeded is an alternative mode of information transmission that can offerthe preferred capacity of using the bandwidth of a communication channelonly when needed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the prior art depicting the resourceallocation process in the traditional PSTN telephony;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a personal IVR service node according tothe preferred embodiment where data is split into distinct packets andtransmitted in a random order;

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of menus, display screens, and input screens usedin one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating the system and method for apersonal IVR service node signal transmission using VoIP according toone embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram demonstrating the sequential transmission ofthe data packets in the PSTN system;

FIG. 6 is a flow chart illustrating the complex structure of a callcenter IVR service node; and

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating architecture of the personal IVRservice node using VoIP, according to one embodiment of the presentinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS AND THE PRESENTLY PREFERREDEMBODIMENTS

The present embodiment discloses a personal IVR service node using VoIPtechnology (hereafter referred to as the personal IVR service node). Inpersonal IVR service nodes the voice information is sent in digital formin discrete packets, rather than in the traditional circuit-committedprotocols of the PSTN. One of the advantages offered by the presentembodiments is the simplicity in which call and information routingtakes place.

A personal IVR service node offers the flexibility not previouslyavailable to individuals and small business. Using VoIP technology, datais passed over the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the destinationnode, rather than over a fixed cable line. VoIP technology is a packetbased voice network, where data and voice is sent in several packets,and each packet is sent along different tracks as the tracks becomeavailable and all the packets are assembled at the receiving end.Transmitting voice over a data network has tremendous impact on thedynamics of voice transmission. The data network can be either theInternet or an ntranet. The personal IVR service node according to thepresent embodiment has all the benefits of the VoIP technology and theease of use of a software packet.

In this application the term subscriber points to a person whosubscribes to the personal IVR service node service, and the term userimplies a person who uses the personal IVR service node to communicatewith the subscriber of the IVR service node. Only a subscriber of thepersonal IVR service node has the ability to define the personal IVRservice node prompts and the action associated with each prompt. Thesubscriber has the ability to define the contents of the prompts as wellas the position where the prompt is placed.

The personal IVR service node has the ability to accept and interpretvarious types of inputs from a subscriber or a user. For examplegenerally IVR service nodes accept a combination of voice input,telephone input, touch-tone keypad input, and email input. Based on theinput received and the prompt set by the subscriber, the personal IVRservice node generates the appropriate responses in the form of voice,fax, callback, e-mail and perhaps other media. Also based on thereceived input, the personal IVR service node allows a subscriber or auser to perform a predetermined operation.

Even though the PSTN has been performing well in transmitting switchvoice calls, it is unable to meet the changing needs of the telephonyindustry. Because it was built to transmit voice across the network, thePSTN is unable to handle the unique characteristics of datatransmission. For example the PSTN does not support the variable use ofbandwidth, which is a desired attribute for data transmission.Additionally, the PSTN cannot offer a higher bandwidth essential fordata transmission.

As built, the PSTN does not have the capacity to handle both data andvoice transmission. For example most homes only have analog lines, andperhaps a 56-kbps modem, which by itself cannot support phone access,Internet access and possibly video access. Only high-speed broadbandaccess such as Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) can provide the capacity tohandle both data and voice transmission. Furthermore, PSTN applicationdevelopment is generally limited to equipment vendors. Therefore, theapplication development and deployment process is remarkably slow.Finally, the PSTN has a bearer channel (B channels and T1 circuits),call-control (SS7) and service logic that are bound in a closedplatform. On account of its closed platform and rigid architecture, thePSTN leaves no room for improving audio quality by modifying theindividual components of the network.

For the faster transmission of data, data should be transmitted via adata-centric network that is specifically devoted to carrying data,instead of carrying data over the existing voice-centric network. Insuch networks, physical circuits would have no bearing on routingdecisions, but the application needs would govern the routing decisions.In the data-centric networks, new technologies such as Fast Ethernet,Gigabit Ethernet, and Optical Networking would be ideal for carrying alarge amount of data at a very high speed.

The Internet can serve as a data centric network. The Internet hasemerged as a large community of electronically connected users locatedaround the world that readily and regularly exchange significant amountsof information. In particular, the Internet is rapidly communicatingvoice as well as data among the users around the globe. The transfer ofinformation over computer networks has become an increasingly importantmeans by which institutions, corporations, and individuals do business.

The embodiments provide a system and a method that enables a subscriberof the personal IVR service node to create a custom IVR service node.According to one embodiment, the personal IVR service node is a softwareapplication that accepts a combination of voice telephone input, emailinput, or touch-tone keypad selection, and provides appropriateresponses in the form of voice, fax, callback, and e-mail.Conventionally, the personal IVR service node has been part of largecomplex application that simultaneously handled the requests of multipleusers. The operations of large IVR service nodes are expensive, henceuntil now small businesses and domestic users could not afford acommercial IVR service node.

The personal IVR service nodes have several hardware and softwarecomponents. Typically the software components are embedded in andtriggered by the hardware components. When a user or a subscriberaccesses the personal IVR service node, the hardware component activatesthe software component and forwards the user input to the softwarecomponent. Based on the computer code in the software component of thepersonal IVR node, the software component makes a decision. Also basedon the computer code, the software component produces a result. Then theresult is sent to the hardware component. The hardware component thencommunicates the result to the user. When the user makes furtherselection based on the input provided by the hardware component. Thiscycle continues until the user ends the contact with the personal IVRnode.

As manufactured, the software component of the personal IVR service nodecontains a set of pre-recorded voice responses that are appropriate fordifferent situations. A subscriber may simply use the personal IVRservice node, without any customization. Alternatively, a subscriber maycustomize the personal IVR service node. The personal IVR service nodeaccording to the present embodiments enables a subscriber to create andcustomize the personal IVR service node in a fast and easy manner. Underthe customize option, a subscriber can define keypad signal logic,access to relevant data, and may set prompts and actions associatedtherein. One commonly used prompt is recording a caller's voice inputfor later handling.

An IVR service node has a set of predetermined conditions andpredetermined actions. Each action is associated with a condition. Uponhappening of the predefined condition, the personal IVR service nodeperforms a predefined action. For example the personal IVR service nodemay prompt a user to enter the user's account number, and if the accountnumber is valid, the personal IVR service node retrieves the user'saccount information from the pertinent database. In this example theaction of retrieving the user's account information is conditional uponthe account number entered by the user being valid. Because theconditions cause the personal IVR service node to perform certainactions, the conditions are also called personal IVR service nodeprompts.

Thereafter, a subscriber can alter and manage the personal IVR servicenode. A subscriber may set new prompts and their associated actions. Asubscriber can modify existing prompts by modifying the contents of aprompt or the position of a prompt in the personal IVR service node. Asubscriber may also change, add or delete the actions associated witheach prompt. The personal IVR service node can also be used to routeincoming or outgoing calls, to select and record text messages to beplayed to callers, to record responses either via voice or DTMFresponses. Additionally, a subscriber can also route the incoming callsto a voicemail system or any other recording device.

Furthermore, a subscriber of the personal IVR service node can alsorecord and display incoming and outgoing call statistics, which may helpthe subscriber to better manage her phone usage or staffing needs.Because of the scale of the effort involved in implementing the complexVoIP technology, these functionalities could not be provided on thesmaller scale in the conventional switch-based systems.

One embodiment of the present invention provides a physical telephonedevice, i.e., a Customer Premise Equipment (CPE), with embedded personalIVR service node software using VoIP for voice and data transmission.

Yet another embodiment provides for an external personal IVR servicenode device that can be attached to the user's telephone, and performsall the functions of the personal IVR service node disclosed in thisapplication.

By way of example, FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a prior art systemdepicting a conventional resource allocation process employed in thePSTN. The voice channels 110, 120, 130,140, 150, 160, and 170 containvoice packets generated from voice of subscriber A and subscriber B. Thevoice packets generated from the subscriber A's voice are represented bynumbered squares 115, 125,135, 145 and the voice packets generated fromthe subscriber B's voice are represented by a numbered circle 155. Thevoice packets are transmitted during time units represented bytime_stamp 1 through time_stamp 23. For the purposes of FIG. 1, it isassumed that the voice channels 110, 120, 130, 140, 150, 160, 170 havethe capacity to carry up to five voice packets at any given time.

At time_stamp 1, the voice channel 110 contains one voice packetgenerated from the subscriber A's voice, represented by numeral 115.Because the voice channel 110 has a total capacity of carrying fivevoice units, the voice channel 110 has 20% capacity utilization attime_stamp 1.

During the time_stamp 2 through time_stamp 4, the PSTN system blocks thevoice channel 120 since the system is waiting for the subscriber A'sremaining voice packets. While the system is waiting for the additionalvoice packets to arrive, the channel 120 and all the network resourcesassociated with that channel are idle. The network resources are idlebecause the PSTN employs a Dual Tone Multi Frequency (DTMF) signalingmethod for the user-to-network signaling. Hence, whenever a user picksup a phone and dials a number, a phone off-hook notification is sent tothe corresponding switch. The switch in return, sends back a dial tone.Thereafter, the source switch and the destination switch exchangeseveral messages until a telephone connection is established. Once theconnection is established, the line is exclusively used for voicetransmission of that conversation. In other words, the telephone line isexclusively dedicated for that conversation for its duration and hence.Hence at any given time, only one set of users can access the networkresources.

Typically, the network resources are capable of multitasking and veryrarely have a 100% capacity utilization for the entire call duration. Onthe contrary, because people tend to pause and take turns during aconversation, the network resources are idle and available from time totime, even when one conversation is in session. It is also possible thatthe conversation may simply be delayed by virtue of one of the partybeing on hold, which may also free the network resources. One keydifference between VoIP and the PSTN is that, unlike the PSTN, VoIPtakes advantage of the free network resources.

Finally at time_stamp 5, subscriber A's next voice packet, representedby numeral 125, arrives in the channel 130 and the capacity utilizationof the channel 130 boosts to 40%.

In the next step, from time_stamp 6 through time_stamp 20, again thesystem remains idle and ties up the voice channel 140 and all theresources associated with the channel 140. Then, at time_stamp 21,subscriber A's third voice packet, represented by numeral 135 arrives inthe voice channel 150, which further raises the channel's capacityutilization to 60%. Next, the subscriber A's fourth voice packet,represented by the numeral 145 arrives in the voice channel 160, attime_stamp 22, which increases the channel's capacity utilization to80%.

At this time, all the voice packets generated from subscriber A'sconversation are delivered to the destination node, hence the next inline, the voice packets generated from subscriber B's conversation arenow up for transmission at time_stamp 22. Accordingly, at time_stamp 23,channel 170 receives the first voice packet generated from subscriberB's conversation, which is represented numeral 155. The capacityutilization of the channel 170 is substantially 100% at time_stamp 23.

Thus, FIG. 1 illustrates the delay and under-utilization issuesassociated with the conventional PSTN system. Even though the system wasidle twice, from time_stamp 2 to time_stamp 4 and from time stamp 6 totime_stamp 20, the voice packets generated from subscriber B'sconversation were forced to wait until time_stamp 22 for transmission.As mentioned in the previous discussion, the PSTN system does notemphasize having 100% resource utilization at all the times, but optsfor a channel that is dedicated to a specific conversation for theduration of the conversation. This adversely affects the number of usersthat can access the system resources. The digital transmission system ofthe preferred embodiment resolves this under-utilization issue of thePSTN.

As opposed to the exclusive resource allocation system in the PSTN, oneembodiment of the present invention adopts a shared resource allocationsystem, where the resources are allocated only when the resources areneeded. Instead of waiting for arrival of certain subscriber's orderedand sequential voice units, the preferred embodiment of the presentinvention transmits available voice units.

The system according to the preferred embodiment uses voice coders tocreate voice packets from the conversation of subscriber A andsubscriber B. The voice coders encode Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) userspeech samples into a number of frames. Traditional Internet TelephonyGateway Platform (ITGPs) use voice coders to digitize and compress thespeech being transmitted across the network. Voice coders split voice ordata into smaller packets, and label the packets the to avoid linkerrors, packet jitters, and bursty transmissions. The packets are thenrandomly dispatched to the destination node. Eventually, the packets aredecoded back to the PCM speech samples at the receiver end. The DigitalSignal Processors (DSPs) in VoIP are engines for voice coders, in thatDSPs support efficient handling of the computation intensive operationsassociated with voice packets.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a system in accordance with the presentinvention demonstrating the manner in which data from a source node issplit into distinct packets and further transmitted in a random order toa destination node. FIG. 2 illustrates a proposed solution to the abovementioned under-utilization issue of the PSTN.

The system according to the illustrated embodiment consists of a caller205, a subscriber 225, a voice channel 250, a customer purchase unit(CPU) 100, a computer readable program code 210 which converts a voiceinput into a data input, a data chunk 215 which is an unprocessed volumeof data generated by the computer readable program code 210, and voicecoders 220 and 235 which split the unprocessed data chunk into severaldistinct data packets. The system further comprises a networked computer225, a second computer readable computer program code 240, which makesthe decision of which packets are transmitted first via the channel 250.

The IVR system according to the preferred embodiment has a mailbox asdiscussed below. The personal IVR service node users such as caller 205,accessing the personal IVR node, have a choice to leave a message in thepersonal IVR service node mailbox, for a subscriber 225 who subscribesthe IVR service.

The digital data transmission begins when caller 205 using the CPU 100sends a voice message addressed to the personal IVR service node mailboxof subscriber 225 via a telephone line. The computer readable programcode 210, converts the voice input into the digital input. Data chunk215 represents unprocessed data mass generated by the voice coders 210.Voice coders 220 split the data chunk 215 into four distinct datapackets, 260, 265, 270, and 275. It must be noted that generally voicecoders 220 would split the data chunk into several packets but in thepresent example, voice coder 220 generates only four distinct datapackets 260, 265, 270, and 275 from data chunk 215.

In FIG. 2, subscriber 225 is also accessing his personal IVR servicenode mailbox via a networked computer 200. The subscriber 225 sends anemail message to his personal IVR service node mailbox. An unprocesseddata chunk 230 represents the email data input. Using standardalgorithms, the voice coder 235 associated with the computer 200 ofsubscriber 225, converts the data mass into four discrete packets 280,285, 290, and 295. The data packets are then sent to a dispatch queuefor channel 250, where the packets wait until the packets are sent tothe personal IVR service node mailbox of subscriber 225. The voicechannel 250 at that point is empty and can be used to transmit datapackets of either caller 205 or subscriber 225. Several user-definedparameters determine the specific characteristics of the dispatchedpackets, for example price and protocol considerations affect the packetsize and the mode of packet delivery.

The personal IVR service node has a memory device storing computerreadable computer program codes 210 and 240, which are softwarecomponents of the network system employing the VoIP technology. Thepersonal IVR service node also has a processor executing the computerreadable program codes 210, 240. The first computer readable computerprogram code 210 converts voice units into data chunk 215. The secondcomputer readable code 240 makes the decision as to which packets aretransmitted first via the channel 250. The second computer readableprogram code 240 also makes the decision that the data packets generatedfrom the telephone input of caller 205 and the data packets generatedfrom the email input of subscriber 225 would share the channel 250.

Hence at first, in this illustrative example, first packet 260 generatedby caller 205 is transmitted via the channel 250. Then fourth packet 295generated by subscriber 225 is transmitted via the channel 250.Thereafter, third data packet 270 generated by caller 205 is transmittedvia channel 250. Subsequently, first and second data packets 280 and 285generated by subscriber 225 are transmitted via the voice channel 250.Finally, second data packet 265 of caller 205 is transmitted through thechannel 250. This results in optimum utilization of the networkresources.

The personal IVR service node according to the preferred embodimentusing VoIP technology may include other hardware and software componentssuch as other program codes. Each of the computer readable program codes210, 240, 245 described above is preferably implemented as code writtenin any suitable programming language and implemented on an analog ordigital computer utilizing any suitable operating system as known bythose skilled in the art.

The voice channel 250 adopts a flexible data transmission approach,where transmission is not conditional upon sequential arrival of thepackets. The packets are sent when they arrive at the voice channel,provided that the required network resources are available. Because thechannel constantly sends incoming packets, and is never left idle, thisapproach resolves the channel capacity under-utilization issue faced bythe PSTN system. The channel 250 first carries data packet 260 generatedby caller 205, then without waiting for second packet 265 generated bycaller 205, which in fact arrived at a later time, the channel 250carries fourth data packet 295 generated by subscriber 225.

The contrast between the prior art as shown in FIG. 1 and theembodiments of FIG. 2 results in saving valuable network resources andcost of calls made therein. As shown in FIG. 1, the second subscriber'svoice packet waited from time_stamp 1 through time_stamp 22. But underthe digital transmission of packet data, the fourth packet of subscriber225 represented by the circle numbered 4, only waited for transmissionof the first packet generated by caller 205. Hence the voice channel inFIG. 2 is never under-utilized.

Since only one channel can carry data packets from various users invarious sequences, the data packet transmission cost is fractional, ascompared to the exclusively dedicated channels in the analogtransmission system.

Going a step further, digital data when transmitted over an IP addressis much cheaper since the Internet provides a data-centric network asopposed to a voice centric network. Using VoIP, a message is convertedinto a data mass. The data mass is divided into a number of packets,such that each packet contains a portion of the data mass. Each packetcan be sent via a different route across the Internet if necessary.Packets can arrive in a different order than the order they were sentin. The Internet Protocol (IP) performs the task of delivering thepackets in the order in which the packets were dispatched. IP is aconnectionless protocol, in which no continuing connection existsbetween the communicating end points. Each packet that travels throughthe Internet is treated as an independent unit of data without anyrelation to any other unit of data. In the Open Systems Interconnection(OSI) communication model, IP is in layer 3 the Networking Layer. Thetask of re-assembling the packets in the correct order is performed byother protocols, such as the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). Thereason the packets do get put in the right order is because of TCP, theconnection-oriented protocol that keeps track of the packet sequence ina message.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of menus, display screens, and input screens usedin one embodiment of the present invention. For all the operationslisted in FIG. 3, a subscriber needs Internet access in order totransmit the voice packets from the source node to the destination node.But instead of using the address of the destination node, the packetsare sent to an IP address of a computer located in proximity to thedestination node. Upon receiving the data packet from a source node, thecomputer holding the IP address forwards the data packets to adestination node.

The Internet may be accessed via any of the means further described indetail in FIG. 6. For example, a subscriber can remotely open theGraphical User Interface of her personal IVR service node from hercomputer using ISDN, or may call from an analog phone to perform any ofthe operations, or access the personal IVR service node using IP Centrexetc.

Before a subscriber can access the personal IVR service node, thesubscriber is required to provide an access code of some sort at block302. Based on the subscriber input, the personal IVR service nodeperforms authentication at block 304. In one embodiment, publicencryption algorithm is employed to authenticate the subscriber. Adatabase is used to store each subscriber's access code. The details ofverification operation and the details of the encryption algorithmemployed in the verification process are well known in the industry andhence are not covered in this application.

When a subscriber provides incorrect access code information, thepersonal IVR service node classifies the subscriber as an invalidsubscriber at block 308. The personal IVR service node also presents anerror message and prompts the subscriber to retry authentication atblock 312. Hence each invalid subscriber is given multiple chances toreattempt the login. The successful login prompts a subscriber to choosefurther action at subscriber selects action at block 310. A subscribermay choose to create a new personal IVR service node at block 314. Undercreate new IVR option 310, the subscriber can customize the personal IVRservice node at block 326, which includes setting or changing thepassword at 338, and recording the outgoing message at 340.Additionally, under the create new IVR option at block 314, thesubscriber can set prompts at block 328 and define actions associatedwith each prompt at block 330.

A personal IVR service node according to this embodiment allows abusiness to tailor its customer access according to preset privacylevels. Furthermore, at 316, subscribers of the personal IVR servicenode can retrieve the incoming messages of the personal IVR service nodeusing a telephone, email, or a fax modem, in one embodiment. Thepersonal IVR service node is equipped with text to speech and speech totext conversion capability. Suitable conversion technologies are wellestablished in the industry and hence the details of the technologiesare not covered in this application. The personal IVR service node usesa digitized synthesized voice to “read” the screen to the distantcaller. A personal IVR service node can perform most of the actions acomputer can perform, such as looking up train timetables, forwardingcalls to a call distribution list etc. The subscribers can also recordthe outgoing messages of the personal IVR service node at block 318.

According to an aspect of the present invention, when a user or asubscriber sends a signal to the remote personal IVR service node, thepersonal IVR service node captures the signal. A software component ofthe personal IVR service node maps the input signals into one of thepreset logical symbols. For example, if a subscriber is prompted toselect an action and the subscriber selects the action “create new IVR”,by pressing a touch tone key #3, instead of digitizing the soundfrequencies corresponding to the DTMF tone associated with the “#3” keyon a touchtone keypad, the software component of the personal IVR nodemay send a message to the procedure that creates a new IVR. Theprocedure accepts the subscriber information input parameters andcreates a new IVR for the subscriber.

According to a further aspect of the present invention, the subscriberhas the ability to build, record, and run the scripts capturing asequence of touchtones. The personal IVR Service node generallyautomatically executes the scripts upon receiving certain inputs. Thepersonal IVR service node stores the script results for later use by thesubscriber. The scripts also enable the subscribers to record themessages using DTMF tone at 342, via telephone voice transmission at346, or via email at 348.

Similarly a subscriber can modify their personal IVR service node at320. The needs of a business and domestic users may change from time totime. The personal IVR service node is geared to serve the needs ofsmall business and domestic users. Hence, the subscriber can modify thepersonal IVR service node at their convenience. A subscriber may alterthe personal IVR service node by changing outgoing messages at 350, orby changing positions of prompts and their associated actions at 352, orsubscriber may change access codes of the callers or the subscriber maychange her own password at 354.

A subscriber may also route the personal IVR service node's incomingmessages to a phone number at 332. This feature would especially beuseful for the business people who need access to their messages evenwhen they are on travel or located inside a client's firewall. Afirewall is a set of related programs, located at a network gatewayserver that protects the resources of a private network from users fromother networks. A firewall prevents outsiders from accessing privatedata resources of an enterprise. A firewall also controls the enterprisemember's access to the outside resources. The subscribers of thepersonal IVR service node, the small business owners are able to accessthe messages of the personal IVR system even from within the firewall ofan enterprise.

However, in order to bypass a firewall, the personal IVR service nodedevice (such as CPE or PC) must have appropriate proxy server settingand configuration. A firewall works in conjunction with a router programand a proxy server. The router program examines each network packet todetermine whether to forward the packet to the packet's destinationnode. The proxy server makes the network requests on behalf ofworkstation users. For example when a subscriber of the personal IVRservice node presents a request to access the personal IVR service node,it is very likely that the firewall may reject the request simplybecause the firewall may not recognize the IP address of the IVR server,as described in FIG. 6. But the firewall can be bypassed by adding theIP address of the IVR server to the domain name list of the enterprise.

Once the IVR service node is configured to bypass a firewall thesubscriber only has to specify a call forward number where his messagesshould be forwarded. Likewise, IVR service node messages can beforwarded to a voicemail at 334 and to an email address at 336.

Lastly at 324, the personal IVR service node can perform the statisticalanalysis. The statistical analysis feature of the personal IVR servicenode is implemented using a database. When a new user or subscriberaccesses the personal IVR service node via any of the means listedabove, the information about the person contacting the personal IVRservice node is gathered and stored into a database.

Based on the information stored in the database and using the standarddatabase functions and procedures, the personal IVR service node canprovide the statistics of both incoming and outgoing calls. Thestatistical analysis feature offers the small business owners ordomestic subscribers a better control over the use of the personal IVRservice node.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating the system and method for apersonal IVR service node signal transmission using VoIP according toone embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 illustrates a networkserver using a VoIP technology to accomplish random transmission ofvarious types of personal IVR service node signals. Using a networkedpersonal computer, Caller 410 sends an email to personal IVR servicenode of subscriber 450. The email is sent to the IP address of the IVRserver associated with personal IVR service node of subscriber 450, viadata packets numbered 1, 2, and 3. Subscriber 450 receives the caller'semail as subscriber 450 remotely accesses the personal IVR service nodevoice messages. Subscriber 450 then sends the reply to telephone ofcaller 410 via packets 10, 11, and 12 by selecting the record messagesoption at block 318 in FIG. 3.

At the same time, caller 430 calls the personal IVR service node ofsubscriber 470 and presents a request for faxing a document via packets7, 8, and 9. Anticipating request of caller 430, subscriber 470 has setthe personal IVR service node prompt such as: “If you are caller 430please enter your access code”. Upon caller 430 entering the correctaccess code, the personal IVR service node of subscriber 470 faxes thedocument to fax machine of caller 430 via packets 16, 17, and 18. It isimportant to note that Subscriber 470 is not even involved in this callat all. The personal IVR service node here is performing the function ofan administrative assistant.

Simultaneously, caller 460 sends the pictures in the GraphicsInterchange Format (.GIF) to personal IVR service node of subscriber 420via packets 13, 14, and 15, requesting subscriber 420 to fax hiscomments on the graphics. Subscriber 420 faxes his comments to caller460 via packets 4, 5, and 6.

Each data packet is a network transmission unit, which contains aheader. A header precedes the data or control signals and describes anattribute of the data packet, such as its length and whether there areother files or transmission units logically or physically associatedwith the data packet being transmitted. The header of each data packetcontains appropriate information such as the destination IP address androuting information specific to the protocols used.

The packetized data is shipped in batches and received in batches aswell. The packets travel on first come first served basis. The packetsgenerally travel out of order but may occasionally travel according totheir original sequence as well. In a network, a node is a connectionpoint, either a source node from where the data transmission originates,an intermittent node, which is a redistribution point, or a destinationnode which is an end point for data transmissions. In general, a nodehas programmed or engineered capability to recognize and process orforward transmissions to other nodes. Each package has its own sequenceidentifier. At the destination node, the packets are reassembled,decoded and sent to the intended party.

As shown in FIG. 4, data packets arrive at the transmission channel 480in a random order. For example, among the three packets sent bysubscriber 470, packet 18 arrives first and packets 16 and 17 arrivelast.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram demonstrating the sequential transmission ofthe data packets in the PSTN system. The PSTN is a circuit switchednetwork, where a physical path is obtained for and dedicated to a singleconnection between two end-points in the network for the duration of theconnection. Ordinary voice phone service is circuit-switched, sincetelephone companies typically reserve a specific physical path to thedialed telephone number for the duration of the call. Hence, during thecall duration, data packets from no other communication can betransmitted via the physical path involved in the call transmission.

More specifically, FIG. 5 illustrates the voice transmission in the PSTNsystem. FIG. 5 depicts channels 500 configured to transmit voicepackages generated by the callers 410, 430, 460 and subscribers 420,450, 470 in FIG. 4. It is important to note that channel 480, has theability to transmit the voice and the data package as shown in FIG. 4.On the contrary, channel 500 is unable to transmit email message ofcaller 410 to subscriber 450 since the email is in the data format. Forthe same reason, channel 500 cannot transmit pictures of caller 460 tosubscriber 420 and fax from the personal IVR service node of subscriber470 to the fax machine of caller 420.

As opposed to the PSTN system, the personal IVR service node accordingto the preferred embodiment has ability to transmit data packets such asan e-mail message, HTML file, Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) file,Uniform Resource Locator (URL) request that is routed between an originand a destination on the Internet.

The only packets channel 500 can transmit are packets 7, 8, and 9generated by caller 430 and packets 10, 11, and 12 generated bysubscriber 450. Even the transmission of these packets is subject to thelimitations described in FIG. 1, where the PSTN system transmits thepackets in sequence, implying that packet 10 can not be transmittedunless packets 7, 8, and 9 are transmitted.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart illustrating the complex structure of oneexemplary embodiment of a call center IVR service node. A call centerIVR prompts a caller to input basic identification information such asaccount number, social security number or a telephone number, and basedon the caller's input, routes the call to an appropriate person ordepartment. The call centers may be spread out at various customersites, and have a predefined hierarchy of questions for a customer. Acall center has multiple points of access, allowing a caller to accessthe call center from various locations. A caller has no discretion inmaking the routing decisions or skipping a step in the hierarchy ofquestions.

While both the systems are interactive and deal with voice transmission,the call center IVR service node and the personal IVR service node havedifferent objectives. A typical call center IVR service node wouldpresumably eliminate multiple call centers around the globe. In itsattempt to improve customer satisfaction, the call center IVR routes thecalls to maintain profitability, reduce employee turnover and avoidinconvenient busy hours where some of the employees need to work atnight shift.

On the other hand, the personal IVR service node enables a subscriber tocreate and modify a custom personal IVR service node using either GUI orWeb application that is designed to cater to needs of the specificsubscriber. A subscriber can further manage the personal IVR servicenode by setting multiple outgoing messages and selecting which outgoingmessage would be played for a specific caller. The personal IVR servicenode can also can accept incoming messages in either text or voiceformat. A subscriber also can route an incoming call to a voicemail,email, phone number or message service. Furthermore, a call center IVRdoes not offer flexible system design, which would allow a subscriber toeasily and frequently modify the personal IVR service node. A subscribercan easily change the personal IVR service node as and when thesubscriber wishes to do so.

Additionally the personal IVR service node and the call center IVRservice node do not share the same architecture. The call center IVR hasa decentralized architecture, where the customer calls a toll freenumber at block 600, and selects a language for call communication atblock 602. Then the customer enters an account number at block 606.Thereafter, the customer selects a region where product was purchased atblock 608. The call centers are distributed at various geographiclocations in order to serve customers located in various geographiclocations as shown at block 614. Then the customer selects the customerassistance option at block 620, over other available service options ofstatus check at block 616 and the option of order placement at block618. Next, the customer chooses a product from a line of product atblock 622 and a model among several available models manufactured by acompany at block 628. The customer then holds for the next availablecustomer care representative at block 634.

Also a call center IVR service node has a branched state transitiondiagram, where a caller cannot skip choices 1-n before it can reachn^(th) choice. The call center seeks to automate the customer so thatmost of the product issues are resolved without involving the customersupport employees. Generally, customers are often put off by having tobrowse through large IVR service nodes, consisting of intricate branchesof choices. There the customers have to pass through each of the choicesto finally get to the prompt the customer is interested in. On thecontrary, in the personal IVR service node, if a subscriber thinks thatshe does not need prompts 1-(n-1) to get to menu n, then the subscribercan change the positions of prompts accordingly.

Finally, the personal IVR service node and the call center IVR servicenode target different audiences. The call center IVR service node seeksto serve large corporations with multiple customer bases, while thepersonal IVR service node seeks to serve small businesses and atraveling population. Global travel often involves time differences.Contacting one's hometown can be challenging in the light of the timedifferences between one's home country and the traveling country. Whileon travel, a busy professional often has a packed schedule, and stayinglate at night making phone calls may not be profitable. In other words,wherever urgent exchange of information is critical, and time differenceand efficiency considerations make the phone contact vexing, thepersonal IVR service node can provide a sensible mode of communication.

Unlike the decentralized architecture of a call center IVR system, thepersonal IVR service node according to the preferred embodiment,describes a centralized structure. The personal IVR service node isdesigned to serve a limited purpose. At the very outset, theauthenticated caller is prompted for the access code and then thesubscriber specified message for the caller, if any, is transmitted tothe caller. The caller is then prompted to leave a message for thesubscriber either via a voicemail or an email. Only a few options arepresented to the callers. The personal IVR service node does not provideseveral access points from different geographic locations. On thecontrary, the IVR service node only provides the access points from eachlocation the subscriber contacts the system or the callers access thesystem. Being focused to achieve this limited goal, the personal IVRservice node does not need intricate architecture, nor does it bombardthe callers with myriad options to choose from.

The Internet may be accessed via any of the means further described indescribed in detail in FIG. 6. For example, a subscriber can remotelyopen the Graphical User Interface of her personal IVR service node fromher computer using ISDN, or may call from an analog phone to perform anyof the operations, or access the personal IVR service node using IPCentrex etc.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating architecture of the personal IVRservice node 795 using VoIP, according to one embodiment of the presentinvention.

The personal IVR service node 795 is coupled to an IVR server 700. Thepersonal IVR service node 795 has a client-server relationship with theIVR server 700. The IVR server 700 is configured to transmit personalIVR service node information in an Internet telephony network. Thepersonal IVR service node 795 performs a function such as recording avoice message. The personal IVR service node 795, which is a client inthe client server relationship with the IVR server 700, then contactsthe IVR server 700 for transmitting the personal IVR service node 795information. For example if a subscriber selects the record voicemessage option, then the personal IVR service node 795 records themessage, converts the voice units into a data chunk, split the datachunk into data packets and transmit the data packets to the IVR server700.

The IVR server 700 then contacts a call processor 615, and otherfacilities managing the delivery of the personal IVR service node datapackets using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology.

A subscriber can access the Internet via an IP Private Branch exchange(IP PBX) 750. An IP PBX is a small version of Internet telephony'slarger central VoIP network. Being the private branch of the VoIPnetwork, the IP PBX provides the advantages of open architectures suchas simultaneous transfer of voice and data, while maintaining theprivacy of a subscriber. This feature is very useful when a subscriberrecords the outgoing message for a caller using the personal IVR servicenode GUI. Taking advantage of the open architecture, the personal IVRservice node simultaneously transfers the subscriber's voice input aswell as the GUI screen input. The open architecture also fostersautomatic dial-outs from computer databases of telephone numbers thisfeature is used in call forwarding feature of the personal IVR servicenode.

Alternatively, a personal IVR service node subscriber may also selectthe IP Centrex 745 option, where the subscriber can sign up for local IPCentrex service. This service is more beneficial for small businessesand domestic users, because they do not have to keep up with fast-movingInternet telephony technology. In another embodiment, a subscriber mayplace an IP Centrex line behind an IP PBX and get advantage of both, theIP PBX 750 and IP Centrex 745, this feature is not shown in FIG. 7.

Both the IP PBX and the IP Centrex are IP telephony equivalents of PBXand a Centrex in the conventional PSTN system. Using means such as IPPBX and IP Centrex, VoIP technology exchanges voice, fax, and otherforms of information that have traditionally been carried over thededicated circuit-switched connections of the PSTN. By using theInternet, VoIP calls (in the form of data packets) travel on sharedlines, and avoid the tolls of the PSTN system.

A personal IVR service node subscriber may also access VoIP networkusing a cable connection 770. The subscriber may also use an IntegratedServices Digital Network (ISDN) connection 765 to access VoIP network.ISDN represents a set of ITU-T (Telecommunication Standardization Sectorof the International Telecommunications Union) standards for digitaltransmission. Subscribers can also install an ISDN adapter that wouldreplace a modem and speed up (up to 128 Kbps) the data transfer in theirpersonal IVR service node. The small businesses and the domestic usersneed to communicate with their clients or friends who still use thePSTN's analog system. The ISDN can help the personal IVR service nodesubscribers to communicate with analog subscribers.

The small business and domestic subscribers of the personal IVR servicenode may also access VoIP network via a DSL at 760 (Digital SubscriberLine), which brings high-bandwidth information to homes and smallbusinesses over the telephone lines. The analog transmission between ahome or a business and the phone company often causes the bandwidthbottleneck. DSL does not require changing the digital data into analogform hence, DSL transfers the digital data is directly to a subscriber'scomputer as digital data. Such transmission allows the phone company touse a much wider bandwidth for transmitting the data to the subscriber,which can be helpful for the personal IVR service node subscribers.

In one embodiment, the Customer Purchase Equipment (CPE) 755 wouldcontain embedded personal IVR service node software. The CPE would bestandalone equipment that can perform the functions of the personal IVRservice node, discussed in this application. The CPE would also have themeans for transmitting Voice over IP.

The Internet 700 is supported by several backend servers such as callprocessor 715, which is responsible for setting up call connectionsbased on incoming call requests of a subscriber or a caller. TheInternet also uses two types of IVR service node Fax servers 720. Thefirst fax server is a one-call machine, used when a subscriber isrequesting the information by calling from his own fax machine. Thesecond is a two-call machine, used when a subscriber calls from a phoneor PC and enters a return fax number where he wants the document to befaxed. For example, to update the home office about the negotiations inthe foreign branch office, a traveling businessman can specify the faxnumber of his home office and request his personal IVR service node tofax the information.

Email Server 725 also supports the VoIP network. Typically, the emailserver is responsible for sending and receiving the emails to and fromthe personal IVR service node subscribers. The server periodically dialsin various mail systems, downloads the emails on its hard drive, andthen sends out notifications to the email recipients. The VoIP networkalso used the Web Server 730, to store and display subscriber's audio,video, and text files. The VoIP also employs Application Server 735,which acts as a server in a client server design of the personal IVRservice node. The GUI and statistical analysis programs of each personalIVR service node act as a client and the Application server is theserver that handles the requests of each of the individual personal IVRservice nodes. Lastly the VoIP personal IVR service node also has aDatabase Server 740, which stores the pertinent subscriber informationfor each personal IVR service node subscriber.

As for the security concerns, VoIP is supported by two protocol suites:H.323 and Media Gateway Control Protocol (MGCP). Relying on many otherprotocols these two protocols support Gatekeepers 705, Gateways 710 andCall Agents (not shown in FIG. 7). In simple words, Gateways are themuscle of the VoIP system and the Gatekeepers and the Call Agents arethe brains that provide direction to the Gateways. The unwarrantedaccess to the VoIP personal IVR service node network is prohibited bythese entities.

It is therefore, an advantage of the present embodiment to provide apersonal IVR service node using VoIP technology that will provideservices offered by larger personal IVR service node's to small businessand domestic users.

A further advantage of the present embodiment is to provide a personalIVR service node using VoIP technology where the subscribers can routecall and information in a simple manner, as compared to the larger IVRservice nodes.

A still further advantage of the present embodiment is to provide aflexible personal IVR service node and method for enabling the personalIVR service node using VoIP technology.

It is also an advantage of the present embodiment to provide an easy touse personal IVR service node, which enables the individual subscribersto create, alter, and modify a personal IVR service node.

It is another advantage of the present embodiment to provide acost-effective method of providing a personal IVR service node, whichcan be updated frequently and swiftly, to meet the changing needs of thesmall businesses and domestic users.

It is still another advantage of the present embodiment to create apersonal IVR service node that enables the subscribers to set/record theoutgoing messages.

It is yet another advantage of the present embodiment to use adata-centric network for data and voice transmission in the personal IVRservice node.

It is also an advantage of the present embodiment to provide thepersonal IVR service node with an open platform and flexiblearchitecture allowing the hardware and the software vendors to modifythe individual components of the personal IVR service node to improvequality of voice and data transmission.

While a particular embodiment of the present invention has been shownand described, modifications may be made. It is therefore intended inthe appended claims to cover all such changes and modifications whichfollow in the true and spirit of the invention.

It is therefore intended that the foregoing detailed description beregarded as illustrative rather than limiting, and that it be understoodthat it is the following claims, including all equivalents, that areintended to define the spirit and scope of this invention.

1. A personal interactive voice response (IVR) service node comprising:a plurality of logical symbols arranged as the personal IVR service nodeprompts; at least one action associated with a logical symbol; a memoryto store the plurality of logical symbols and the at least one actionassociated with each of the plurality of logical symbols; an inputdevice to receive an input signal; a processing device to decode thereceived input signal, the processing device configured to map the inputsignals into one of the plurality of logical symbols, execute a set ofcomputer instructions performing the action associated with a mappedlogical symbol, packetize recent transaction information in voice codeddigital packets; dispatch the recent transaction packets to an Internetprotocol address in a random order; and update with an IVR server torecord recent transaction.
 2. The personal IVR service node of claim 1,wherein the input device is configured to allow a subscriber to regulateaccess to the personal IVR service node in accordance with presetprivacy levels.
 3. The personal IVR service node of claim 1, wherein theinput device is configured to authenticate a caller in the personal IVRservice node.